Peace, Love and Baby Ducks, Lauren Myracle

Publisher: Dutton Books Pub Date: May 2009 Age Range: 12+ Pages: 289pp From Goodreads: Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, fifteen-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy—and authenticity—of her sister, Anna. But when fourteen-year-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do. With warmth, insight, and an unparalleled gift for finding humor even in stormy situations, beloved author Lauren Myracle dives into the tumultuous waters of sisterhood and shows that even very different sisters can learn to help each other stay afloat. As an older and oldest sister, I completely understood the main character, Carly Lauderdale. Trying to be the one who sets the rules for the younger siblings can be tiring and annoying. However, when Carly goes away for six weeks on "fun enrichment program" in the backwoods of Tennessee, she starts to see a whole different world. A world where money and materialistic things are not important. That is until she comes home to a world where money, materialistic thing and looks are more important than say helping a needy child during the holidays. Another thing that has happened over the summer is younger sister, Anna, had developed into quite the beautiful voluptuous young woman. Carly can't understand how Anna can be so shallow. So begins a tale of two different sisters who try to make their own path in a world where the have and have nots at some point or another collide. Throw in a cute, inaccessible boy and mix in a boy one knows is the one our heroine should fall for and problems ensue. Carly's relationships with her friends suffer from her 'rules' and her views on the world. They think of things in terms of Neiman Marcus, Hair Extensions and Hard Candy Make-up. Carly's world revolves around music that makes her feel the world. Carly also takes issue with her school, Holy Redeemer, a christian school that shove suspect morals down their rich throats. I really enjoyed how the book was broken up into three parts. Peace, which is what Carly is looking for. Love, what every teenager must go through and Baby ducks which I can't really explain without spoiling. But you mix all those together and it makes for a heartwarming sister story where love, hate, and above all sisterly love beats all.